This year KOPA is all set to participate at LIGNA with an entire range of heavy machinery for the forestry industry and will display the innovative forestry solution at the open-air site of the trade fair, the recently revamped F20D forwarder from ROTTNE.
KOPA Forstmachinen – Handels- and Reparatur GmbH had its inception in 1964, since then the company continuously evolved, and produced innovative products in the market. With time, the company has enlarged its distribution network, and today the products are found in Germany, Austria, Netherlands, Belgium and Switzerland. This year at Hannover, in LIGNA 2019, KOPA is all set to host a full range of heavy machinery.
The ROTTNE F20D will be the main attraction of the show. This robust forwarder is equipped with a loading capacity of 20metric tons and a loading area of 8.4 square meters. This system makes it an ideal machine for transportation across long distances. This is an automatic gearbox that is equipped with an automatic gearbox and a variable hydrostatic transmission to offer a tractive force of 27 metric tons. The layout of the forwarder is specially designed to handle different types of terrain and also function in high speed and move with heavy loads. The upgraded forestry –solution doubled with energy-efficiency RK 160 crane solution is perfect to ensure a highly successful future for ROTTNE F20D.
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Koneosapalvelu is going through a strong development stage. The construction of the company’s new facilities began in Vilppula, Central Finland in February 2019. This investment in premises and equipment enables the company to achieve additional capacity, in addition to having modern production and workshop facilities.
New premises for production and customer service
Koneosapalvelu’s business operations will be concentrated to the new premises and the existing building will be renovated. The extension will be completed at the end of 2019, giving Koneosapalvelu about 2700 m² new business premises. The new premises will include the hydraulics service, shop and hydraulic hose assemblies, a central warehouse, offices as well as social and recreational facilities for the staff. The transmission repair shop and cylinder installation will also be getting a renovated production facility in the current location.
The renovation of the premises also means updating machinery and equipment. The most significant equipment investment will be the new testing equipment for hydraulics maintenance, which will provide a unique capacity for the Finnish market for testing and adjusting hydraulic pumps used in mobile machinery and industrial applications. The testing equipment can be used for testing all hydraulic pumps up to a volume of 380 cm³, with a maximum pressure of 550 bar and a maximum flow of 300 l/min.
Koneosapalvelu is the first Finnish company to become Bosch Rexroth Service Partner
Koneosapalvelu’s hydraulics service will become a certified Bosch Rexroth Service Partner when the new premises are completed. The collaboration agreement with Bosch Rexroth was signed in August 2018.
The new building with its machinery and equipment investments will add more capacity and modern facilities not only for hydraulics maintenance but also for the production of reconditioned parts, logistics operations and customer service in the shop.
More information
Koneosapalvelu Oy
Ville Nevalainen
Managing Director
Ph. +358 440 555150
ville.nevalainen@koneosapalvelu.fi
Main Photo: Ville Nevalainen Managing Director Koneosapalvelu Oy
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This year Ligna will become the epicentre for sawmill leaders. Turkish log sawmill specialist Üstünkarli Makine A.S. will attend LIGNA in May at Hannover to display those machines designed to process high-quality French and German hardwood for the leading market.
The company had its inception in 1954 in Izmir, Üstünkarli Makine A.S as a small workshop for saw production and sawmill machinery. At present, the workshop near Izmir Adnan Menderes Airport spans some 20,000 square meters, as well as the unique machines, are shipped all over the globe. Üstünkarli Makine A.S is thus exhibiting at LIGNA, with its strong reputation and for attracting the audience from far and wide.
Üstünkarli Makine A.S is showcasing a line of unique innovations at LIGNA this year, displaying new machinery near the Franco-German border. The audience at LIGNA will have the chance to explore these machines and equipment at the show.
The developers and production team of Üstünkarli Makine A.S will be present at the centre to explain the technology behind the developments that include an inclined hydraulic log carriage with an optimization-software-operated 2D scanner, a chipping canter with adequate speed control functionality and an automatic edger line with chipping canters.
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In March, the notified area of final felling in Sweden increased by 16% compared with the corresponding month in 2018. It is the second highest monthly recorded data for the whole country in for March month in the last 12 years, according to the Swedish Forest Agency.
The total area of notified final felling in the whole country amounted to 18,103 hectares. The increase is partly due to the extensive attacks by bark beetle in large parts of South of Sweden and Central Sweden. Furthermore, storms Alfrida and Jan also affect where forest owners now make notifications to be able to take care of the forest that has been affected.
The notified area of final felling increased in all regions except for the region South of Northern Sweden where it decreased by 24% to 3,799 hectares. In the region North of Sweden, it was unchanged amounting to 2,429 hectares. In the region Central Sweden, the notified area of final felling increased by 74% and amounted to 5,266 hectares, which is the highest monthly recorded data for March since 2007. In the region South of Sweden, the increase was 29% and amounted to 6,608 hectares.
At county level, the notified area of final felling increased in 16 of 21 counties. The highest increase percentage was in Örebro County. In Stockholm, Kalmar and Värmland counties, the increase was more than a doubling of the notified final felling area. It is the highest monthly recorded data for March month since 2007 in all these four counties, but also in Uppsala and Västra Götaland County.
In Jämtland County, the notified area of final felling decreased by 41%.
During the 1Q 2019, 25% larger area of notified final felling compared with the same quarter last year.
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Ponsse’s consolidated net sales for 2018 amounted to Euro 143.1 million, which is 0.7% more than in 2017. International business operations accounted for 76.3% of net sales.
The operating result amounted to Euro 12.9 million. The operating result equalled 9% of net sales for the period under review. Consolidated return on capital employed (ROCE) stood at 19.8%.
Order intake for the period totalled Euro 222.8 million, while period-end order books were valued at Euro 367.9 million.
Ponsse Plc is a company specialising in the sales, manufacture, servicing and technology of cut-to-length method forest machines.
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At LIGNA 2019, Linck will be showcasing a further development in the shape of its log motion control: a Microtec Truespin unit tracks and maps the actual position of the log as it is spun.
The Linck optimization program calculates the deviation from the ideal position, and adjusts the spin trajectory if necessary. The more accurately the log can be positioned, the more useable – and saleable – timber it will yield.
Linck’s optimization software calculates the precise angle of spin from the dimensional data provided by a 3D scan. To visit Linck click here.
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Moelven has entered into a cooperation agreement with SCA to deliver pellets from Moelven’s new pellet factory.
The collaboration will provide the Swedish group SCA with a long-term and exclusive supply agreement of 80,000 tonne per annum, which is the entire production volume from Moelven Pellet’s factory in Sokna, Norway.
“This is a massive agreement for Moelven Pellets, a company that will first start its operations in the fall of 2019. We are proud to become a supplier to such an experienced group with exciting ambitions regarding renewable energy. This agreement also shows that Moelven ventured into the pellet market at the right time with our energy-efficient and innovative pellet plant,” says CEO Lars Storslett in Moelven Pellets AS.
Moelven is a Scandinavian industrial group that produces building products and systems for the construction industry.
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The fishing community of Cispatá Bay on the coast of Colombia might seem like the unlikely site of an investment for Apple. But the tech giant, which is funding the protection of a 27,000-acre mangrove forest in the area, sees it as a strategic part of its fight to mitigate climate change. Source: Fast Company Forests are an effective and low-cost way to capture CO2 at a time when new technology designed to do the same thing–like machines that can mechanically suck carbon from the air–is still in its infancy and costly. Mangrove forests are particularly effective. “Mangrove forests can absorb and store up to 10 times more carbon than a terrestrial forest,” said Lisa Jackson, the company’s vice president of environmental, social, and policy initiatives, who previously served as the head of the Obama-era EPA. “And, globally, we’ve lost half of the world’s mangrove forests since the 1940s, so it’s high time we start preserving and protecting them.” The company is making progress in cutting its own emissions. A year ago, it announced that it had reached a goal of powering all of its operations with 100% renewable electricity. It’s convinced more than 40 of its suppliers to make the same commitment. It’s designing new ways to recycle products, like a robot that can disassemble 200 iPhones in an hour; eventually, it could use materials in a closed loop rather than relying on suppliers to mine new natural resources. But investing in forests can help the company cut global carbon while technology and processes are still improving. The project in Colombia, which Apple began working on last year and wrote about in more detail today, is not its first investment in forests. In China, Apple partnered with World Wildlife Fund to help one million acres of forest transition to better management practices, and is working to help the Chinese government update forest management guidelines for the entire country. In the US, it worked with The Conservation Fund, which buys working forests and helps them become certified as sustainably managed and protected into the future. In Colombia, it recognized the unique opportunity of working with mangroves. If you want to change the thermostat of the planet in a meaningful way in your own lifetime, probably the best thing you can do is end the destruction of mangroves,” says M. Sanjayan, CEO of Conservation International, the nonprofit working with Apple on the project. When the trees are chopped down–something that happens both for the use of the wood and to expand farming and fishing–they emit the carbon that they have stored for centuries. In a year, as much as one billion metric tons of CO2 are released from degraded coastal ecosystems “About 6% of global emissions come from the destruction of this tiny sliver of a habitat, this forest that clings onto the edge of oceans in tropical systems around the world,” says Sanjayan. Ending the destruction of mangroves worldwide would be the equivalent of entirely eliminating the emissions of France and German. But the organization estimates that only about 2% of funding for climate mitigation goes to nature-based solutions, despite the fact that those solutions are an important addition to other changes like the shift to renewable energy. An analysis in 2017 led by The Nature Conservancy estimated that stopping deforestation, improving forest management practices, and restoring forests could remove around 7 billion tons of emissions from the atmosphere annually, more than the pollution from every car on the planet. Another analysis this year looked at the impact of planting trees in existing parks, forests, and abandoned land, and concluded there was room to plant 1.2 billion trillion new trees, enough to absorb perhaps a decade’s worth of human emissions. Apple’s funding in Colombia is also helping Conservation International work with the Colombia-based Invemar Research Institute to accurately measure the amount of carbon stored in trees, plants, and soil. That will make it possible to sell carbon offsets under the Verified Carbon Standard–the first time that an ocean or coastal ecosystem has sold a carbon offset for what is known as the “blue carbon” stored in coastal plants and soil. Other methods in the past have focused on the carbon stored above ground, but the soil is actually the most critical part of the ecosystem. The project can help incentivize the local community to protect the forest. “The funding really goes to support communities,” says Sanjayan. “And from Apple’s perspective, that’s actually kind of an important part of the picture. These aren’t mangroves in national parks. These are mangroves that are really in working communities.” The community collects seafood like crabs and clams from around the roots of the trees, and keeping the trees intact protects their livelihoods. The trees also double as a climate adaptation tool. As climate change makes storms more intense and sea levels rise, the forest can help provide some protection to homes near the shore. It’s the type of work that other companies should consider, he says. “I would love to see what happened to plastics happen to deforestation,” he says. “Businesses are all of a sudden really tuned into the issue of plastics. We need to make the same thing happen with deforestation.” In many cases, that means working harder to avoid deforestation in the supply chain, whether companies are sourcing palm oil (for use in shampoo, or lipstick, or instant noodles, or ice cream) or beef, soy, or other products produced in former rainforests. But it can also mean separately funding the protection of rainforests even if a company’s own products may be unrelated. “This is rare for Apple to say, but we are telling other companies to copy us on this,” says Jackson. “We hope that by showing we can successfully apply the same innovation that goes into our products to our efforts to protect the environment, other companies will be encouraged to take action.”
Wildfire, insect infestation, disease, and severe weather have degraded hundreds of thousands of acres of National Forest land in the US. The damage has destroyed wildlife habitat, impaired watersheds, stressed drinking water sources, degraded places people recreate, and compromised the ability of the forests to absorb and store carbon. As a result, dozens of National Forests urgently need active reforestation. Source: Timberbiz The National Forest Foundation (NFF) in US, a private non-profit organization, is working closely with the US Forest Service to restore lost forest cover. “From the Sierra Nevada’s conifer slopes to grizzly habitat in Montana to a favorite family campground in the Appalachians, the places we are restoring matter deeply to Americans,” Ray Foote, NFF executive vice president said. “The groundswell of enthusiasm for planting trees – from major US companies to school groups and individual citizens in every state – is inspiring. These partners are enabling us to meet an urgent need today. They’re also doing something with impact for generations.” The NFF’s accelerating efforts add to the success of its early stages in a campaign to plant 50 million trees in National Forests. Last year, the NFF planted 2.6 million trees to kick off this multi-year initiative.In 2019, the organization will nearly double its previous record. The Forest Service estimates more than one million acres need reforestation now. The NFF coordinates with the Forest Service to select high priority reforestation projects, planting only native, ecologically appropriate tree species. “Every project is different,” Mr Foote said. “In the Midwest, we come in after blowdown events and deadly infestations. “In the Southeast, our work boosts longleaf pine forests, a signature species of that region. “In Arizona, NFF planting projects create forests more resilient to future fires. But what is not different is the high quality science, research, seed collection, and nursery work. Then, it is critical to plant the right seedlings in the right place at the right time.” Through its simple model of one-dollar-plants-a-tree, the campaign mobilizes businesses and individuals to concrete action. “We’re inspired the by sustainability leadership of so many companies and small businesses that are demonstrating that our forests, and their future, matter” Wes Swaffar, director of partnerships and reforestation said. “Partnerships with companies as diverse as Caudalie (cosmetics), Busch (beer), and Lands’ End (clothing) demonstrate the breadth of interests and approaches in this transformative effort.”
The Forest Europe Expert Group on Human Health and Well-being has published a book that summarizes current knowledge on the health benefits of forests and integration of social aspects of forests into sustainable forest management (SFM). The publication presents evidence on the health benefits of forests, and shares concepts and approaches for utilizing the beneficial effects of forests. Source: SDG Knowledge Hub It highlights that the capacity of forests to contribute to health and wellbeing enables the forestry sector to be considered in key national objectives and strategies as well as World Health Organisation (WHO) action plans and the SDG. The book titled, ‘Human Health and Sustainable Forest Management,’ argues that health and well-being benefits and other social functions of forests, including forest education, recreation and spiritual experience, are an “increasingly important part of the values that people derive from forests.” It highlights the role of forest ecosystem services in creating healthy living environments, from maintaining water quality and soil fertility to helping control erosion, but cautions that there are trade offs between maintaining service provision and timber production. Within this context, the publication argues for forest policies that respond to global challenges, demographic changes and other trends to increase the preparedness of the forest sector to meet the needs of growing urban populations, in line with the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, the UN Strategic Plan for Forests (UNSPF) 2017-2030 and the EU Forest Strategy. According to research presented in the book, there is strong evidence that forests improve mood and attention and can lead to positive changes in cardiovascular risk factors, among many other benefits. The publication presents five key mechanisms for the health benefits of forests: reduced exposure to noise and air pollution; increased physical activity and reduction in obesity rates; strengthening the immune system through contact with nature; stress reduction and psychological and physiological restoration; and better social contacts, including strengthening relationships, developing new relationships and participation and community building. European countries are already creating and developing interventions and programs to encourage populations to use forests for health and well-being. Some interventions target individuals or populations with behavioural, emotional, physical or mental problems, such as forest therapy walks, while others focus on promoting health, such as healing forest trails and wellness paths. Forests can also provide educational outdoor opportunities with indirect health benefits, such as through forest schools and field trips. The publication shares recommendations for integrating human health into SFM. These include: encouragement of public participation and inclusivity in forest management planning; enhancement of cross-sectoral cooperation, such as cooperation across health, education, recreation, sport and tourism sectors; investment in research, innovation and skills development; communication to improve public understanding of forests and minimize conflicts in the management and use of forested areas; and development of schemes for monitoring the health benefits of outdoor recreation and other benefits as well as measuring the supply of forests and other natural areas. The book advocates for developing and applying mechanisms and funding for the long-term provision of forest ecosystem services for health and social benefits, such as through payments for ecosystem services (PES). Forest Europe established the expert group within the framework of its Work Program 2016-2020, following the outcomes of the Seventh Ministerial Conference. The Governments of Slovakia, Germany, Spain, Sweden and Turkey supported implementation of the Work Program.
Experienced Board Director Tim Stollznow has been appointed to the ForestrySA Board. Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development said Mr Stollznow has extensive board experience in commercial and not for profit organisations including the Leedwell Property Group, Makers Empire, Rossi Boots, Finke River Mission, Yirara College and Adelaide Lutheran Sports Club. Source: Timberbiz “Mr Stollznow has over 30 years business and management experience in Australia, the United States and in the Asia Pacific and has gained this experience across the manufacturing, IT, hospitality, education and commercial property sectors,” said Minister Whetstone. “The depth and breadth of Mr Stollznow’s business experience will be invaluable to the ForestrySA board.” Mr Stollznow has an Honours Degree in Electronic Engineering from the University of Adelaide, a Graduate Diploma in Technology Management and is a Fellow of the Australian Institute of Company Directors. His appointment is effective immediately and until 1 August 2020. Scott Ashby is retiring from the Board having been first appointed in 2016. “I would like to thank Mr Ashby for his service over the last three years. The skills and expertise Scott has brought to the ForestrySA Board have been extremely valuable,” said Minister Whetstone. The ForestrySA Board is the governing body of the South Australian Forestry Corporation (trading as ForestrySA). Continuing members are Ms June Roache (Chair) and Mr Grant Pelton.
Jarrah will be the timber of choice in premium architectural applications with the launch of a new branding strategy for this much-loved timber species. New Jarrah has been developed by the Forest Industries Federation of Western Australia (FIFWA) and the Forest Products Commission (FPC) to reposition jarrah as a high-quality, premium and desirable product. Source: Timberbiz FIFWA Acting Chief Executive Officer Matt Granger said New Jarrah is all about reigniting the love for this beautiful, high-quality wood. “It’s called New Jarrah because it has a different appearance to the timber many of us grew up with,” Mr Granger said. “The wood is sustainably sourced from regrowth jarrah forests which provides a lighter and more subtle colour than traditional jarrah.” The Forest Industries Federation of Western Australia launched the branding at a timber industry conference in Perth which linked internationally-recognised design and building professionals at the forefront of timber construction. The State government has committed to invest $50,000 to assist in promoting New Jarrah over the next two years. “New Jarrah is a strong, unique and renewable resource, and choosing New Jarrah will support the West Australian timber industry, local jobs and sustainable forest management,” Mr Granger said.
Forestry in New Zealand can trace its beginnings back to the tree nurseries of Whakarewarewa (near Rotorua) established in the late 1800s. In the years that followed, the nursery was home to the first experiments of New Zealand’s young forestry industry. That work went on to set the New Zealand nursery standard for commercial nursery practices and was established as world class. Sources: Timberbiz, Scion To ensure New Zealand is up to the challenges ahead in forestry and tissue culture science, this year Scion will build the first ‘pilot’ stage of a new nursery, specifically aimed at meeting novel science and commercial challenges in exotic and indigenous forestry. The future is in high spec, hygienic, mechanised nurseries with high throughput of seedlings and clonal material. The opportunity for indigenous propagation is also significant. Indigenous forestry is now in its infancy, not dissimilar to radiata pine 70 years ago. “Our aspiration is that the New Zealand forest nursery industry becomes a leaner and more sustainable industry which provides more attractive, skilled work opportunities,” Scion’s Nursery Research Scientist Craig Ford said. “Ultimately, we aim to facilitate integrated tissue culture and highly automated nursery propagation for exotic forestry into mainstream practice and to carry out more novel science in indigenous forestry.” The first phase of the Scion Nursery redevelopment will cost around $1 million. It will be a small scale, modular, automated, lean-flow, environmentally sustainable propagation facility. New facilities will allow Scion to pioneer and showcase more environmentally and economically sustainable production systems through improved ergonomics, hygiene, water, frost and heat management options, and improved growing media and growing container options. Such facilities will help industry move away from chemicals, plastics, non-sustainable growing media and a reliance on non-renewable energy for heating and lighting. It will use several new-to-New Zealand forest nursery machines and techniques, such as automated paper pot sowing lines and containerised mini-hedge tunnels (mother stock for rooted cutting production of high-value genetic material). With these facilities, the team will be able to perform climate-controlled seedling and cutting production trials for indigenous and exotic species, and tissue culture hardening, growing and ex-vitro rooting trials. Construction began in March 2019, and the new facilities will be ready in spring 2019 for the growing season.
Every month, IndustryEdge publishes Wood Market Edge, Australia’s only forestry and wood products market and trade analysis, and supplies its customers with hundreds of unique data products, advisory and consulting services. Find out more at www.industryedge.com.au Softwood Log Exports – 269,632 m3 – Australia’s softwood log exports in February were at a 13 month low Softwood Log Export Price – USDFob104.85/m3– Average price of softwood log exports in February Softwood Logs >15 cm diameter ~ 81.7% of total – Exports of larger dimension logs totalled 220,267 m3 Hardwood Log Exports – 87,233 m3 – Australia’s hardwood log exports in February were at an 8 month high Tasmania Supplied 67,197 m3 – Hardwood log exports from Tasmania amounted to 77% of the total in February
John Gay, the long-time former managing director of timber company Gunns, has died aged 75. He was born into a third-generation sawmilling family in Deloraine in 1943. After attending boarding school in Hobart, he went to work at his father’s sawmill at the age of 15. He was operating his own mills at Oatlands and Bridgewater by the age of 21. Source: ABC Mr Gay joined Gunns in 1974 to manage its Waverley and Summerhill plants. A decade later he was Managing Director of the publicly listed company. Under the direction of Mr Gay, Gunns exploded onto world markets in 2000, with takeovers of the state’s biggest woodchip company, North Forest Products and Boral’s forestry division. It doubled the size of the company and made it one of the largest hardwood sawmillers in the Southern Hemisphere. Former Tasmanian premier Robin Gray said his friend of 54 years had been a great Tasmanian who would be missed. “He made a great contribution to our state, and a great contribution to northern Tasmania,” Mr Gray said. “He worked hard to look after his employees, to create jobs, to create economic wellbeing, and to manage the forest industries that he was responsible for in the best way. We will miss John, the likes of him probably won’t be seen again in the north of Tasmania.” Mr Gay is survived by his wife Erica and two children.
Extra state funding to boost the prescribed burning program has been welcomed by the WA timber industry. WA Environment Minister, Stephen Dawson has announced that the forthcoming State Budget will include $22 million over four years for the Enhanced Prescribed Burning Program implemented by the Department of Biodiversity, Conservation and Attractions (DBCA). Source: Timberbiz The announcement has been welcomed by the Forest Industries Federation of WA (FIFWA). Prescribed burning is essential for protecting communities and important forestry assets, according to FIFWA Acting CEO, Matt Granger. “Prescribed burning helps reduce fuel loads in forests and the associated risk of catastrophic wildfire,” Mr Granger said. “This vital program helps keep communities safe, and protects both native forests and plantations, key assets for industry. “Prescribed burning helps maintain healthy forests and this funding will enable DBCA to continue meeting the key performance indicators outlined in the current Forest Management Plan,” he said. “Jobs and investment in forest industries are threatened when forests and forestry equipment are destroyed by wildfire. “Prescribed burning complements other bushfire mitigation strategies like mechanical fuel reduction, to make communities safer and protect important assets.”
Veteran firefighter Ewan Waller has called for fuel reduction burning to be an integral part of a visionary, long-term policy for managing fire in the forest. His thoughts were prompted by the recent fires in Gippsland and his memories of the Black Saturday inferno when he experienced the nauseating feeling of walking over the charred remains of countless birds. Source: Philip Hopkins for Timberbiz “Such high intensity fires are so destructive of all values,” he said. Ewan, Victoria’s former Chief Fire Officer with more than 40 years’ experience as a forester and now a consultant, praised Victoria’s firefighting. “Forest Fire Management Victoria is doing a really good job on suppression”,” he said, but the biggest issue was burning – fuel management. “There’s just not enough research going into the damage of the big fires,” he said. “We should burn at night and far more into winter, and selectively – real mosaic burning. Ideally, there should be a mix of burnt and unburnt, with repeated burning.” That can be done with aircraft. Burning large areas in a mosaic pattern “will not necessarily stop the run of a large fire but will lessen the intensity and the impact,” he said. Ewan said lightning strikes had to be put out, not left to burn out “naturally”, otherwise they did a lot of damage. Ideally, they ran into a mosaic of burnt areas, which would slow the fires, reduce spotting, and allow animals to escape to refuge areas. Burning needed to be done across the board, both in national parks and private bush. The precautionary principle, ‘Don’t burn’, should be ‘Burn more’, he said. Ewan said the writing by early European settlers and scientists showed that Aboriginal burning was so important for forest health, to provide ‘green’ patches for animals and cleared bush to see enemies. “Elders trailed fire all day, but it was strictly controlled,” he said. Ewan said good developments included more skilled contractors active in the field, which had come through the national burning program. He praised the mechanical thinning trials as a “big, underused option”. If the back country was not burnt, it was crucial to do good burns at the interface between the bush and the public. “The bush can be thinned a long way back – it can be done commercially – and should be regularly burnt, with short rotations of three to five years, and 5-10 kilometres back,” he said. Ewan said Forest Fire Management Victoria was doing a really good job; multiple lightning strikes across eastern Victoria this year were picked up professionally and quickly, except for ones in really difficult country. “They are building capacity in people, particularly young people, who can fight fires. The project fire fighters learn great skills in four-wheel drive and chainsaw use in the bush and generally they are well lead,” he said. “Burning is difficult, risky, stressful, the environment dynamic. We cannot be risk adverse even though this will be difficult for the politicians and the department and the workers doing the burning. The Government and the firefighters must be fully supported and encouraged especially when something goes wrong.” The full interview with Ewan Waller will be published in the June edition of Australian Forests & Timber.
JoeScan’s latest JS-50 sawmill scanner keeps impressing. After a successful run of spring tradeshows, the Vancouver, Washington based company is preparing for a busy summer of travel with their new device.
“We got a lot of great feedback from mill owners at the Southeastern Lumber Manufacturers Association spring meeting and the Hardwood Manufacturers Association annual conference,” says JoeScan president Joey Nelson. “Sawmills love the idea of having a single scanner model for their entire line. It really simplifies things for management and employees.”
The next big show for JoeScan is LIGNA. In Germany they will be unveiling a new transverse demo of the JS-50.
“People got to see the JS-50 scan logs at TP&EE in Portland last year,” Nelson adds. “We’re already known for lineal and log scanning, so the chance to show off the performance for trimmers and transverse edgers is a great step forward for us. This really is a scanner that can do it all for sawmills.”
“We’ve made it a big priority to get out there and have conversations with the sawmills that are using our products,” Nelson says. “We only make scanners for sawmills, so their input is invaluable to us. It’s these relationships that allow us to generate innovations like the features in the JS-50.”
Stop by and say hello at any of the above shows this year, and you will get the chance to influence the next big sawmill scanning improvement from JoeScan.
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BSc Tommi Ekman, 44, has been appointed Logset Oy´s CEO and will start in his new position in late 2019. Ekman comes to Logset from John Deere Forestry Oy, where he has worked as General Manager, Marketing & Order Fulfillment. Ekman has 19 years of experience from different demanding tasks within the global forest machine industry and he has worked several years for John Deere and Waratah Forestry Attachment.
I’ve been following the good development of Logset for a while. When they contacted me, I didn’t hesitate to seize the opportunity. Logset’ s leadership in hybrid technology, its investments in distribution, and its modern, high-end products convinced me that the company can reach its growth goals. I want to contribute to the growth process with my own experience and energy, says the future CEO.
With Tommi Ekman, we will have a real forest machine man in the company management. The Board of Directors was convinced by his solid experience of different demanding tasks in the industry. Tommi can increase our competence and expertise in all our business areas and operations, and his positive energy makes him easy to follow as a leader, says Chairman of the Board Tapio Nikkanen.
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Logset Oy will establish a subsidiary named Logset Inc. in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada in May 2019. The new office base will offer sales help and technical support to Logset dealers based in North and South America, Japan and Australia. Through Logset Inc., the company can work in the same time zone as the dealers. In the beginning, Logset will send three people to work for Logset Inc.: Pascal Réty, Vice President of Sales and Marketing (acting as a CEO for Logset Inc.), Jari-Pekka Ylikoski, Technical Support and Johanna Sereda, Administrative Coordinator. Réty and Ylikoski will start working from the new office in June 2019. Johanna will follow a few months later.
We sell Logset products through our dealers around the world and we will continue with the same strategy with Logset Inc. We are going to work hard to increase the support for our dealers. Our aim is to grow together, says Réty.
Logset has sold machines in Canada since 2002. In 2010, Logset signed a dealer agreement with the current dealer LN Machinerie, based in the Quebec province. In 2017, Logset made important dealer agreements with Fabick CAT and Milton CAT in the U.S. The Fabick CAT territory includes the entire state of Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, as well as major parts of Missouri and Illinois. The Milton CAT territory consists of New England and upstate New York.
Logset has sold machines in Brazil through its current dealer Minusa, located in Lages, Santa Catarina. In the beginning of 2018, the Logset dealer network grew also in Brazil with the new dealer Pesa CAT.
Establishing a subisidiary closer to the new dealers in North and South America is a logical next step for Logset.
North and South America are potential growth areas for us. Establishing a subsidiary is a commitment and an investment from Logset. We chose Ontario, Canada as the best base for Logset Inc. because it is located between our three dealers in North America, Réty explains.
In 2018, Logset Oy’s turnover grew to a record level of 40.128 million euros (2017: 30.922 million euros) and the operating profit to 1,671 million euros (2017: 0,935 million euros). The strongest growth came from the Russian and South American markets.
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